Super expensive remnants.....

Last weekend a friend and I went to Abhakhan Fabrics in Preston.  She had never been before and was really impressed.  She did well, filling four large bags with craft fabric and fleece (she is mainly a quilter but also sews for kids and grandkids).  I got three bits of poly wool mix knit for winter polo necks.  I was a good girl and had only the amount I needed cut from the larger remnants, which are bought by weight.  Though rather tempted to buy all they had of the gray as its particularly ymmy. 

Between her enthusiasm to see all fabric and ensure she missed nothing, and my long wait to have some fabric cut, plus the long queue for us both to pay, we were a bit late back to the car.  And yesterday I got a parking ticket in the post for our extra 11 minutes in the car park...... £50.  I am seriously annoyed, but what can you do?  I suppose I am more annoyed because I was so careful NOT to spend too much money in the shop.......... think how much fabric that £50 would have bought.  AND I'd had my eye on the time and it was only the queue for the fabric cutting and purchase that delayed us.  Had that gone smoothly we'd have been outta there on time.  Grrrrr.

Super expensive remnants I think you will agree.   They are all supersoft and of varying stretch levels, but the grey is particularly soft and stretchy.  All should make nice warm tops, and the grey is not nearly as brown as the photo shows, its a nice mid grey, a bit darker than the photo shows. 

There has been a bit of sewing at SewYLD mansions.... but it was a disaster.  I got two Marfy knit tops in my last order and tackled this one first, expecting it to be the simpler of the two patterns. 

I am ashamed to say that I cannot work out how to attach the collar.  I've spent six hours in total trying to work it out and used most of the expletives at my command.  Mum had a look yesterday and said "well clearly it goes like this.." ......but it didn't go like that after all and an hour later even she, with decades of  sewing experience, had to admit defeat.  However, we tried the collar, it was bulky, and looked messy.  Neither of us could work out how to get it to fit smoothly into the V neckline, and the collar itself has a raw edge on the hood part.... either that or you are supposed to make two collar pieces and seam them at the edge... but I doubt that to be the intention because then you would have eight layers of fabric, all pleated up, in the Vee of the neckline. 
The top itself was not a good fit and needed a lot of tweaking.... not a good sign when the other top I bought is a gathered cross over which is a lot more complicated to alter.   Eeek.  That's a pattern alteration session that can wait until I'm not tired I think.

But I can probably use the sleeve pattern and add it to a sleeveless knit top pattern  I  got at the same time. This was always the intention, but I'm not sure I'd intended to buy a pattern solely for the sleeves.  :)

I've been knitting more than sewing lately... a symptom of having little time and energy thanks to a very busy time at work resulting in longer hours than I'd wish.  Picking up knitting for half an hour, particularly the plain knitting I've been doing, is easier than picking up sewing, though next on the sewing list is a pile of polo necks and these are easy to fit into small gaps in the evening.  So hopefully those super expensive remnants will be super warm polo necks in the next week or two.